Continuing the “Gay shit” for Pride 2017, I thought this would be a good time to revisit a rant I’ve made before. Of course, said rant, in its original form, is currently unavailable, because fuck Twitter. So, might as well recreate it in blog form. I wanna take this time to break down why “Love Is Love” is a terrible way to advocate for LGBTQ people. Particularly, since this recently popped up on my Facebook news feed:

“In June we celebrate love.” …tuh

As with most any other trendy form of activism, “Love is Love” seems innocent enough on its face. It’s another form of pushing the message of equality for LGBTQ people…to advocate that we’re “just like” the heteros.

2017 Pride season is on the horizon, so, once again, I wanna help you “allies” be a little less terrible.

With all the mess surround president Drumpf (and there’s way too much to keep up with), one of the big topics is his ties with Vladimir Putin and Russia. For those unaware of said ties, I don’t feel like giving an overview and you’re likely reading this from a device that has Google. But basically, some of the popular chosen responses to the connection between the two has been something to the tune of: [Read more…]

Recently, an article was published via Guardian, examining the whole “No Blacks, No Asians” issue among gay men. It was the latest in a semi-wave of articles being written over the last couple of years, largely by white, gay men, examining the issue. The article, for the most part, wasn’t terrible (not at all groundbreaking, to anyone who’s been paying attention, though). It was a 101 intro to racism in the gay community…but for me, that’s part of the issue…but of course, I’ve been wanting us all to get out of the kiddie pool of social justice for a while. Additionally, looking on Twitter, the author’s responses to the fair and legit criticisms from POC have been telling, if not typical. There’s this expectation from white people that, just the most basic acts of “allyship” puts one above reproach. I’ve discussed my issues with “allyship” in pieces throughout this site, so no need to dive into it, here, but this just all feels very familiar…and old. [Read more…]

Rapper Young Thug recently released a new mixtape, called My Name Is Jeffery. But what people are really talking about is the mixtape cover (pictured below). It’s drawn various reactions, many of which include people regarding it as brave, progressive and daring. Me, on the other hand? Not so much. There’s just a few things to consider.

First, he’s ultimately a cishet man, and publicly displaying themselves in a dress or other attire that’s considered feminine isn’t exactly new territory for them. As long as you go out of your way to ensure that you are, in fact, cisgender and heterosexual, you can safely throw on that dress and keep it pushing. As Myles E. Johnson, a Black Queer Femme who I drew some inspiration from for this essay pointed out, in this existing environment, cishet men will always have more autonomy than Queer men to explore gender expression, and still maintain their safety. This is, of course, as long as they, in addition to going out of their way to assert their straightness, be sure to throw LGBTQ people under the bus, in the process (which even the beloved, late and great Prince is guilty of…just Google “Prince Homophobia”).